I. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication, and more specifically to techniques for improving standby time of a station in a wireless network.
II. Background
Wireless networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as voice, video, packet data, broadcast, messaging, etc. These wireless networks may be capable of supporting communication for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. Examples of such networks include wireless local area networks (WLANs), wireless metropolitan area networks (WMANs), wireless wide area networks (WWANs), and wireless personal area networks (WPANs). The terms “network” and “system” are often used interchangeably.
A wireless network may include any number of access points (APs) and any number of stations (STAs). An access point may act as a coordinator for communication with the stations. A station may actively communicate with an access point, may be idle, or may be powered down at any given moment depending on the data requirements of the station.
Standby time is an important selling point for portable devices that are battery powered. Current WLAN portable devices tend to have poor standby time performance in comparison to cellular phones. For example, the standby time for currently available WLAN Voice-over-IP (VOIP) phones typically ranges between 40 and 80 hours on batteries similar to those used in cellular phones. In comparison, cellular phones may be able to achieve 400 hours of standby time on similar batteries.
IEEE 802.11 is a family of standards developed by The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for WLANs. IEEE 802.11 defines a method for a station to sleep and thus save power. However, the efficiency of the method is limited for stations desiring very low power consumption because of signaling limitations in the standard as well as limited support by the access points and/or stations.
There is therefore a need in the art for techniques to improve the standby time of a station in a wireless network.